Kasteel Mheer Castle of Mheer © DJI footage by Falconi

Mheer Castle is located on Dorpsstraat in the centre of the village of the same name, Mheer, which is part of the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten in the Dutch province of Limburg. The castle is a designated national monument (rijksmonument).

The castle stands on a ridge of the Margraten Plateau, and to the south of the castle lies the dry valley known as the Horstergrub. The castle is situated directly behind the Church of St Lambertus in the village, and alongside the church runs a driveway leading up to the castle. In the cemetery next to the church is the burial chapel with crypt of the de Loë family, with a visual axis between the castle and the chapel.

Description of the castle
Castle farmstead from the early 17th century
The castle complex consists of a four-winged main castle and a U-shaped outer bailey. The four wings of the main castle are arranged around a small inner courtyard, which can be reached via a footbridge over a dry moat leading to an entrance gate in the southern wing. The western wing, which contains a great hall, is the oldest and dates from the early 14th century. The northern wing was built at the end of the 14th century, while the eastern wing, with its substantial round tower, was added in the 15th century. This round tower, however, stands on much older foundations, probably dating from the late 11th century. Finally, the enclosing southern wing, with an arcade on bluestone columns on the courtyard side, was constructed around 1570.

The interior of the castle contains a fireplace dating from 1514, decorated with several coats of arms, as well as another fireplace from 1667.

The outer bailey has a gate pavilion on its eastern side dating from 1612, containing a bluestone entrance gate reached by a bridge spanning another dry moat. Mheer Castle is the only castle in Dutch Limburg to have a bluestone machicolation (mezekouw or pekneus), located above the entrance gate of the outer bailey. The gate bears the alliance coat of arms of Winand van Imstenraedt and Mechteld van de Bongart, who had the castle farmstead built between 1612 and 1623 (during the Twelve Years’ Truce). In the south-eastern corner of the castle farmstead stands a round tower dating from 1619.

On the north side of the castle lies a castle park, designed in 1852 by the Belgian landscape architect Jean Gindras and laid out by P. Custodis, on behalf of the then owner of the castle, Otto Napoleon de Loë.

History and residents

The present castle is situated between the old roads from ’s-Gravenvoeren to Gulpen (via Libeek and Terlinden respectively) and probably originated during the reclamation of the Margraten Plateau in the 11th to 13th centuries. The oldest building elements (the foundations of the round tower) may date from this early period. The first part of the castle residence was built after the Battle of Worringen (1288), when the Duke of Brabant assumed sovereign rights over the County of Dalhem and the Duchy of Limburg.

The first known resident was Wilhelmus (William) van Mere, who held the house in fief from the Duke of Limburg and exercised administrative authority over the area as a fief of the Count of Dalhem. William is mentioned in a register of Duke John II of Brabant in 1314. It is unknown whether this William van Mere was related to the knight Gozewijn van Mere (mentioned between 1262 and 1272) or to another William van Mere who, around 1200, is said to have donated land in Gulpen and Mheer to the Marian foundation in Aachen. These vassals had close ties with the Van Libeek family, who later succeeded them (Reinson the Elder and Reinson the Younger).

Reinson the Younger had no legitimate children. When he died in 1487, the inheritance passed to his nephew Jan van Imstenraedt, son of Reinson’s sister Maria van Libeek. Jan’s grandson Gerard van Imstenraedt acquired the manorial rights over Mheer in 1564. During his tenure, and subsequently that of his son Winand, the southern wing of the castle was built (1570). Under the same Winand van Imstenraedt, the castle farmstead was also constructed (1612).

The Van Imstenraedt family resided at the castle for five generations. The last of them was Jan Adolf van Imstenraedt, who was married to Christina de Loë van Wissen. Through this marriage, the family name de Loë became associated with the castle for the first time—the name of the present castle owners. The Imstenraedt–de Loë couple remained childless, and as a result the castle passed by inheritance to Christina’s nephew, Philipp Christoffel, Baron de Loë, Lord of Wissen and Conradsheim.

Since 1668, the castle has remained continuously in the possession of the de Loë family. The only change over the centuries has been the gradual Frenchification of the family name.
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